Native Americans

Patriotism, Exceptionalism, and the New American Identity

James S Robbins

• Editorial: Encounter Books
• Año: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781594036118
• Categoría: Politik & Internationale Beziehungen
• Categoría: Nationalismus & Patriotismus

Are you an American? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, increasing numbers of people are claiming "American” as their national ancestry. In our melting pot of cultures, they are taking a stand as authentic representatives of the American nation. This growing social phenomenon serves as the launching point for a discussion of what twenty-first century Americanism means—its roots and its significance—and the unrelenting assault from multiculturalists who believe that the term "American” either signifies nothing or is a badge of shame. Author James S. Robbins describes the foundations of the American ideal, the core set of beliefs that define American values, and the ways in which these standards have been undermined and corrupted. He also makes the case for the benefits of an objective standard of what it means to be an American and for returning to the values that turned America from an undeveloped wilderness to the most exceptional country in the world.

NOTES

Chapter 1

1 William Damon, “American Amnesia,” Defining Ideas, July 1, 2011. Dr. Damon’s essay was based on his book, Failing Liberty 101: How We Are Leaving Young Americans Unprepared for Citizenship in a Free Society (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2011).

2 James Kirkup, “Muslims must embrace our British values, David Cameron says,” The Telegraph (February 5, 2011).

3 Andrew Porter, “David Cameron: migration threatens our way of life,” The Telegraph (April 13, 2011).

4 Chris Pollard, “John Cleese: London is no longer English city,” The Sun (September 4, 2011).

5 Matthew Clark, “Germany’s Angela Merkel: Multiculturalism has ‘utterly failed,’” The Christian Science Monitor (October 17, 2010).

6 Quoted in Soeren Kern, “Angry Turk’s Message for Europe: ‘We Are Coming,’” Pundicity (March 16, 2012).

7 “France’s Sarkozy: Multiculturalism a failure,” Reuters (February 11, 2011).

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8 James S. Robbins, “The Oslo Terrorist in His Own Words: Bomber Predicted ‘Europe soon will burn once again,’” The Washington Times (July 23, 2011).

9 “The life and death of French gunman Mohamed Merah,” The Los Angeles Times (March 22, 2012).

Chapter 2

1 Objectivists and Ayn Rand aficionados may particularly be interested in the note on the top left corner of the Waldseemüller map that reads, “Many have thought to be an invention what the famous Poet [Virgil] said, that ‘a land lies beyond the stars, beyond the paths of the year and the sun, where Atlas the heaven-bearer turns on his shoulder the axis of the world set with blazing stars;’ but now, at last, it proves clearly to have been true. It is, in fact, the land discovered by the King of Castile’s captain, Columbus, and by Americo Vesputius, men of great and excellent talent, of which the greater part lies under the path of the year and sun, and between the tropics but extending nonetheless to about nineteen degrees beyond Capricorn toward the Antarctic pole beyond the paths of the year and the sun. Wherein, indeed, a greater amount of gold is to be found than of any other metal.”

2 George Berkeley, A proposal for the better supplying of churches in our foreign plantations (London: H. Woodfall, 1725), 17.

3 James Gibson, A journal of the late siege by the troops from North America (London: J. Newberry, 1747), 43. The author further notes, “By these Means true Religion and Virtue may gradually succeed in the Place of Superstition and Idolatry; and Humanity, Faith and good Morals, instead of Cruelty, Ignorance and Jesuitical Principles, destructive of all the former.”

4 Josiah Rucker, A Brief Essay on the Advantages and Disadvantages which Respectively Attend France and Great Britain, with Regard to Trade, 3rd ed. (London: T. Trye, 1753), 102–103. Rucker argued, years before Burke, that such mercantilist measures would harm Britain by cutting more expensive British bar iron out of the market, hence “this Difference in the Price is in fact a Bounty given by yourselves for the Encouragement of Iron-Manufactures in America.” He called it “an astonishing Instance of the Ignorance and Infatuation of the English in regard to their own Interest.”

5 The Scots Magazine, vol. 3 (June 1741), 274.

6 The London Magazine, or, Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer (August 1755), 382.

7 John Shebbeare, Letters on the English Nation, by Batista Ange-loni, a Jesuit, who resided many years in London (London, 1755), xix. The highest-ranking American officer accompanying Braddock’s force was Colonel George Washington, who assumed command when Braddock was slain near Fort Duquesne in July 1755.

8 H. W. Brand, on “Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg” (May 29, 2003).

9 Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone, 1776: A Musical Play (New York: Viking Press, 1970).

10 Lord Dunmore, to the Earl of Dartmouth, secretary of state for the colonies, December 24, 1774. In Documentary History of Dunmore’s War, R. G. Thwaites and L. P. Kellogg, eds. (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society, 1905), 371–372.

11 Arthur Aikin, The Annual Review, and History of Literature, vol. 4 (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1806), 276.

12 Francois VI, Duc de la Rochefoucault-Liancourt, Travels through the United States of North America, the country of the Iroquois, and Upper Canada, in the years 1795, 1796, and 1797; with an authentic account of Lower Canada (London: T. Davison, 1799), 107.

13 “The American Character,” The Literary magazine, and American register for 1804, vol. 2, Charles Brockden Brown, ed., (Philadelphia: J. Conrad & Co., 1804), 254.

14 “The American Character,” 256.

15 American State Papers, in The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review, vol. 4 (1807), 39.

16 See James S. Robbins, “Fantastic Voyage,” National Review Online (October 10, 2005) and “Celebrate America on Columbus Day,” The Washington Times (October 7, 2011), from which the following was in part adapted.

17 Simon Willard Jr., The Columbian Union, containing general and particular explanations of government, and the Columbian Constitution, being an amendment to the constitution of the United States (Albany, 1814), 116, 120.

18 Jean-Jacques Ampère, Promenade en Amérique; États-Unis, Cuba, Mexique (Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, 1860), 8.

19 Richard Thornton, “Native Americans and fiscal reformers say, ‘Goodbye Columbus!’” The Examiner (October 10, 2011).

20 See The Course of Study: A Monthly Publication for Teachers and Parents (Chicago: The Chicago Institute, July 1900), 255.

Chapter 3

1 See the author’s “Obama and America’s Decline,” The Washington Times (November 9, 2010). Some passages here are adapted from that essay. For the general discussion of American exceptionalism, see inter alia Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1996); Godfrey Hodgson, The Myth of American Exceptionalism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009); and Andrew J. Bacevich, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2008), as well as other works cited below.

2 Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, trans. Rex Warner (New York: Penguin Books, 1982), 143–151.

3 Margaret Thatcher, speech at Hoover Institution Lunch, Washington, D.C., March 8, 1991.

4 Ronald Reagan, “The Shining City Upon a Hill,” speech to the first Conservative Political Action Conference, January 25, 1974.

5 The inspiration for this passage was in the book of Matthew 5:14–16: “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (KJV).

6 Winthrop’s views of the Indians echo Psalm 2:8: “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” (KJV). His take on the 1634 smallpox epidemic is similar to viewing the AIDS epidemic as the product of divine judgment, or Hurricane Katrina as an example ...